Rock Bottom's racism and violence continues.

Rock Bottom's security guards have been written about before, noticeably by Muscat Jet Driver and Muscat's Undercover Dragon.(A special smile to the ever-amusing depiction of a meat head by the Jet Driver).

On Thursday evening (5th May), the renowned bouncers decided to operate an entrance policy: If you're white, you don't pay a cover charge. If you are of colour, you have to pay a cover charge. This policy was being enforced even on groups of people made up of all races, with the darker ones being stopped and requested to pay. The bouncers were specifically targeting people of Indian decent.

I'm told that one particular South African man decided that he was sick of this treatment and so knocked over the bouncers little table outside the entrance to the night club. Having realised in his alcoholic fuelled outburst that this was probably not the best way to go about things, decided to make a swift exit and run from the now agitated bouncers.

What happens next is, quite simply, incredible. I've corroborated this from 3 separate accounts of what happened from people that witnessed this.

There were 4 bouncers wearing white shirts in the entrance area to the club, 2 chased after the man, the other two went into the club and presumably called in reinforcements.

Outside, the first of the two bouncers ran up behind the man, who was now walking away, and with absolutely no verbal warnings just smashed his fist into the back of the man's head, dropping him to the floor. More white-shirted bouncers appeared onto the scene, a total of around 15, and proceeded to kick and punch the man who was now on the floor. A white companion of the victim on the floor attempted to pull people off his friend and pull the man up from the ground. This man took a reported 8 punches to his face from the bouncers, and did not throw one single punch in his own defence - purely only looking to save his friend on the ground from a very serious mauling. Thats some dedication right there I'd say.

There were many witnesses, including the Manager of the hotel, a certain "Ms Mimi", who then threatened the white man that the ROP were coming to the scene, and that she had video evidence of assault on her staff. 15 men kicking the living sh** out of one customer victim (of racism) on the floor apparently constitutes assault of her staff.

Now, this may sound like a drunken story of a typical night gone wrong involving bouncers. Except this is an all too common occurrence that happens at the Rock Bottoms club here in Muscat, and these bouncers appear to think that they can get away with stuff like this. And evidentially, they are getting away with this outrageous behaviour.

If you are going out this weekend, consider visiting another bar. Why take the risk of being abused like this, why give an establishment that allows it's staff to act this way your patronage? There are other options out there. Have you experienced problems with the staff at Rock Bottoms? Let us all know below.

PS - dont forget to enter into the competition for free tickets to Nemr Abou Nassar this weekend!

Yes, I have first hand experience of this kind of behaviour. My husband was involved in a similar incident at the Rock Bottom, he was assaulted outside the club, the punch was thrown from behind as he stood surrounded by a crowd of people. It was more than likely one of the bouncers although he cannot be 100% sure as he was knocked to the ground and lost consciousness for a moment. He suffered a broken cheek bone as a result...

theWeek had done a cover story on the aforementioned racism practiced by Rock Bottom a few years ago. tragic that Rock Bottom is still getting away with it despite the repeated coverage in the media and local blogs.

So a p**sed South African (who of course could not be a racist) - deliberatly knocks over a bouncers table in his bid for and end of Rock-Bottom apartheid .... and thinks that they are just going to leave it at that ?

So what if he knocked over the bouncers table? How does that mean he deserves to have the shit kicked out of him? Is this how your parents taught you? There is something very wrong with this mentality.

OMG! what the hell! I would not go there ever again! I always knew the bouncers there are rude, but this is a whole different level of ridiculous! They dont seem to mind letting in old perves who follow women all the way out and ask them "how much" though! what the fuck!

About 4 years ago we were at Rock Bottom and young Omani guys were being silly pushing chairs onto the dance floor into people. It appeared the bouncers were blind and didn't do anything to these guys. I went up to one and alerted him to the situation and he just waved me off. They pushed a chair again and again and then it hit me, needless to say my husband had enough and grabbed the guy in the chair and told him to stop. All his friends about 10 of them came fwd to yell at my husband on why he grabbed their friend. If it wasn't clear it was because they were hurting people with what they were doing. I ran to get the bouncer and said to come and stop this before it got worse. The bouncers came and grabbed my husband instead and escorted him outside, as we tried to explain what happened they weren't interested. In the meantime the group from inside were now out with us yelling at my husband and one tried to jump kick my hubby while the bouncers watched only that he fell flat on his face. The bouncers were siding with the idiotic group and luckily I managed to get my hubby away from the this altercation and into our car and then we left. The bouncers at Rock Bottom are high on steroids with inactive brain matter if you ask me. They don't know how to do their jobs which is to protect their customers and keep the peace. Needless to say we haven't been back since as it's not safe at all.

It sounds like Rock Bottom Dubai - same policy. Owners are Indian and suffer from caste system syndrome. I dont know about Oman but here in Dubai you are not allowed into such establishment if you wear national dress too. Stopped going long ago after all why pay good money to get insulted when you can get insults for free. BOYCOTT them and constantly write about them in all media magazine or picket outside.

I had something different happen, while I went (the first and only time) to rockbottom with friends I wanted to leave before they would so took my car. Wasn't happy about leaving it with the valet parking but I was told it'd be fine.

While in there I was groped twice while I actually had my back to those men.

Then I went to leave and the valet guys tried to stop me going telling me wait go back in find a guy! I told them I wasn't interested but they then pretended they had lost my keys so I should go back in and wait! I stood my ground although they stopped me looking in the drawer of keys to spot mine, I described what was on the keychain (a very noticeable silk elephant)! Eventually a different valet came up looked once in the drawer and came up with the keys. Amazing! Just felt glad that as it was early there were people round!.

Also worth mentioning as I left a Muslim woman was pleading with the bouncers to go in and get her daughter....... they said no and wouldn't help her!

Will not be going back, have heard a lot of bad experiences from people.

Am an African American living in muscat. When some friends were visiting from back home we went out to RB. This was several months ago. We had agreed to meet 2 friends (from new Zealand) at RB.

When arrived all men were asked to pay RO 10 and girls RO 5 per . Sao we asked our friends if they paid, they said no, and that they just walked in. When asked the manager and bouncers mentioned that my friends were 'members'

I am sure that that my friends were not members but apparently too dark to get in.

It is hard to be sympathetic due to the fact that the person got aggressive over what exactly? Nothing. In Oman, as we all know race plays a part in everything we do. When white girl/boy tries to take a taxi, even shared it will cost 7 to 20 OMR to get less than 1 km. An Indian pays 100-300 baisa for the same shared taxi. Whitey pays 100 times more. And not just Whitey but any Westerner, including hispanices, chinese etc....

At clubs, there are few places you can go without getting bothered by certain men non stop, this includes locals. This is why the Rock Bottom became popular. Finally a place for Western expats to go to and feel relaxed. (somewhat).

I have seen many whiteys getting asked for cover. I think their is no fixed policy. In reverse I have seen Asias getting in places like ZOUK for free...and Westerners being asked some insane cover fee.

So it goes both ways in fact. I really don't buy the racism issue. Sorry.Western expats are in the minority.

The majority of expats in the Middle East are MALE. Mostly Asian males.

The Rock Bottom appears to try to balance the crowd so it is not all male. I have noticed this is the only club in Oman that has a fairly good mix of female to male. Considering just how few females are out nightclubbing. And when I say females, I am not including all the filipina prostitutes and cross dressers that seem to trail in the last hour the club is open to pick up some business.

Let's face it clubs in Oman need standards. In London clubs have select crowds, in India, In NYC, etc....and it is very very much needed in Oman.

Racism is not the issue. It is lack of balance Western to Asian. There are enough Asian clubs for Asians to go to if they are not happy.

The big problem at Rock Bottom are all the prostitutes. Funny how I don't hear any Asians or Men complaining about that on this form. Thats just proves the point further that the Gulf is an unbalanced place, and having some clubs be more exclusive can only be a good thing.

Also I have yet to see the day an Indian or Asian of any sort will not try to rip off a Westerner, for rent, car rentals, food, and over charging or doubling billing in bars with drinks etc.... If there is a race issue then it is directed at ripping off Westerners every chance anyone there can get. Or dating them in hopes of obtaining a passport from anywhere but an Asian country...insert your girlfriends name here _____________ hahahaha...you know it's true.

You just made some good points: there's a long road ahead left before Oman becomes a normal place where male and female youth goes clubbing. Where are the Omani girls??? Ever seen one? :)For the rest, shame on Ramee security staff as well as ROP authorities.

I'm a regular customer at Rock Bottom as I love the steaks there. I always take my guests there for meal when I have them over from the UK and I've never experienced any trouble. After reading this article and several others like it I intend to boycott Rock Bottoms and will tell everyone I ever meet that they should do the same.

Like the person who posted above, the only appeal of this place is their steak specials! It is afterall just a dingy dive, badly managed and with untrained thugs as door staff. Boycott the place and go to Dukes Bar at the Crown Plaza for your steaks!

I went there a couple of times, was welcomed with big smiles by the security at the entrance and didn't pay anything.Now, reading a few blogs about R&B, I realise that happened just because I am european and blah blah ... OMG! How much hypocrisy, how fake we can be, today we all are just slaves of money ...

As my hotel was far away from the city, we decided to spend the whole day in the city, away from our hotel. As a result of the summer heat, I decided to wear shorts in the morning before leaving my hotel. Little did I know that wearing shorts proved to be quite costly. By the end of the night, my friends and I decided to go clubbing and we made our way to rock bottom.

The bouncer instantly told me that I could not enter because I was wearing shorts (completely understandable). But because the manager heard me speaking in a Kuwaiti dialect, he personally allowed me and my friends to enter the club. The bouncer witnessed the manager allowing me to enter and didn't say anything.

No more than five minutes later, the bouncer entered the club and began pushing me outside. I was shocked because the bouncer came out of nowhere. He continued to push me outside as he was swearing at me and telling me to leave. I put up no resistance and complied as he was pushing me aggressively towards the exit. As soon as he got me outside of the club, he threw a punch with his right arm, hitting and bruising my eyebrow.

I spent the next half an hour complaining to the manager and demanding compensation. None of the staff were of any use. It seemed like a common occurance to just hit customers.

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